CDC – Missouri Has Had Confirmed Cases of Bird Flu in 2024

The bird flu is back and it's spreading including one case where a human has been sickened after contact with cattle. I have also confirmed that bird flu has been confirmed in Missouri in 2024 affecting flock sizes of over 90,000.

Yahoo Finance is reporting that there's a new outbreak of bird flu in the United States including 5 new states. CNN reported that this new uptick of the bird flu included a human case where a man had contact with infected cattle in Texas.

I decided to explore the CDC database and learned that there has been an outbreak of the bird flu in Missouri in February of 2024 affecting large flock sizes.

The reported cases were in Dallas County, Missouri on February 21, 2024 with affected flocks numbering 28,500, 12,300, 31,000 and 20,300 according to the CDC data.

Let's be clear that there is no indication that these cases are an ongoing threat. However, the new cases reported in recent days do include Kansas right across the Missouri border.

The concern about the bird flu reports is that it will hurt the dairy industry which is what led to the Yahoo Finance report. There is no indication that this new outbreak of the bird flu is of any human safety concern and those that drink milk should not worry. 

For what it's worth, here are all the counties in America that have had bird flu cases over the past two years according to the CDC.

I just find it interesting that there were confirmed cases of bird flu in Missouri this year yet I didn't see any reports of it even though the CDC does have the cases listed in their database.